The present invention relates to providing redundant data communication paths in a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) link, and more specifically, to activating a standby PCI host bridge when a master PCI host bridge experiences an error.
An unrecoverable or fatal error in a PCI host bridge indicates that the PCI host bridge may be corrupt and cannot recover or continue operation. When such an error is detected, a host computing device may perform a reset as part of an error recovery process on the PCI host bridge. However, while recovering from the error, the PCI host bridge may be taken offline. As a result, the I/O devices (i.e., peripheral devices) that rely on the PCI host bridge to facilitate PCI communication with the host computing device may be communicatively disconnected from the host computing device. In some instances, the PCI host bridge may require tens of seconds to perform the error recovery process until PCI communication between the I/O devices and the host is restored. This downtime may negatively affect a computing system's performance and availability.